COP28: Pledge To Triple Renewable Energy By 2030, Climate Finance — Key Announcements So Far

COP28: The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference being held in Dubai, or the 28th edition of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change saw several major deals, pledges, announcements and allocation of funds. It began on November 30, and will end on December 12. On December 4, five days of COP28 meetings concluded. Some of the major developments include the operationalisation of the loss and damage fund, the establishment of the Climate Club, a pledge to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030, and allocation of funds to tackle methane, among others. 

The following are the key announcements made at COP28 so far. 

COP28 Day 5: December 4

On the fifth day of the climate summit, climate finance was the main focus because it was finance day. 

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a deal with Bill Gates’s nuclear reactor company, Abu Dhabi partnered with the World Bank, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC), and others to host a climate finance think tank, and France and Japan have announced their support for the African Development Bank. 

COP28: Climate Finance Talks

Several money pledges were made on the fifth day of COP28 in order to boost climate finance. Every year, developing countries require hundreds of billions of dollars to adapt to climate change, and trillions for a clean energy transition, a Reuters report said. 

Vulnerable countries that have witnessed climate disasters are demanding billions through a newly formed disaster fund, the report stated.

Quoting Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the report said that unless there is urgent decision-making, the world will suffer what every parent suffers from: exciting expectations and being unable to deliver. 

Mottley, during a news conference, urged countries to consider taxes as a way to boost climate funding, and go beyond voluntary pledges. 

For instance, a global 0.1 per cent tax on financial services can raise $420 billion, while a five per cent tax on global oil and gas profits in 2022 would have raised $200 billion, according to Mottley. 

Fossil fuel subsidies have hit a record $7 trillion per year. UN Secretary-General Antònio Guterres urged world leaders to end fossil fuel subsidies. 

Activists associated with the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, including Pakistani activist Zaigham Abbas, said on December 4 that they were worried the sums pledged would be inadequate, according to the report. 

The UAE has made the biggest single pledge so far at COP28. On December 1, the UAE pledged $30 billion for climate-related projects. Of this, $5 billion will be used for poor countries. 

For the loss and damage fund, $720 million has been raised so far. 

Danish investment firm Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners announced on Monday that it plans to raise $3 billion for renewable projects in emerging markets. 

COP28: UAE’s Deal With Bill Gates’s Nuclear Company

The UAE’s state-owned nuclear company ENEC has signed a deal with Bill Gates’s advanced nuclear reactor company TerraPower to study the potential development of advanced reactors in the UAE and abroad, a Reuters report said.

The UAE intends to expand its nuclear energy capacity. Over 20 countries have pledged at COP28 to triple nuclear deployment this decade to fight combat change. 

Quoting Mohamed Al Hammadi, the CEO of ENEC, the report said for the UAE, the company is looking for a future for the clean electrons and molecules that will be brought to reality by advanced reactors. 

Chris Levesque, the CEO and President of TerraPower, said that bringing advanced nuclear technologies to market is critical to meeting global decarbonisation targets. 

The UAE’s only traditional nuclear power plant is located near Abu Dhabi, and started producing electricity in 2020. TerraPower hopes that its advanced Natrium reactor will come online in 2030.

Advanced reactors are advantageous because they are smaller, easier to build, and more dynamic than traditional plants. Some of the uses of advanced nuclear reactors the memorandum of understanding between TerraPower and ENEC would explore include storing power on the grid, providing energy required to produce hydrogen, and decarbonising coal, steel and aluminium plants. 

COP28: ESA Teams Up With UNEP

The European Space Agency (ESA) has teamed up with the UN Environment Program to harness space technology for a sustainable future, and to obtain robust climate data to make informed decisions. 

COP28: Rockefeller Foundation’s Carbon Credits Initiative

On the fourth day of COP28, a consortium led by the Rockefeller Foundation launched an initiative to use carbon credits to retire a coal power plant in the Philippines before the end of the plant’s natural life, Reuters reported. COP28 is focusing on finding ways to phase-out fossil fuels. 

The plant is called the South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporation (SLTEC), and the initiative is called the Coal to Clean Credit Initiative (CCCI). It is supported by Philippine energy company ACEN and the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The initiative aims to use carbon credits to decommission the plant by 2030. This is a decade ahead of its retirement date.

According to the report, the initiative stated that the project was a “first of its kind”. 

COP28: President’s Statement On Climate Science

COP28 President Dr Sultan Al Jaber said during a press conference that he respected Climate science, and that the work of his presidency has been centred around it. 

This came after his statement that there is no science behind the fact that phasing out fossil fuels will limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the Guardian reported. 

However, the UN climate science agency, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has said that it is important to greatly reduce the use of fossil fuels and eliminate the use of unabated coal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. 

COP28: France And Japan’s Support For The African Development Bank

On finance day at COP28, France and Japan announced that they will support the African Development Bank’s facility to use the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights for climate and development. Lending Special Drawing Rights to development banks can help the latter bolster climate finance. 

COP28: Arab Energy Fund’s Decarbonisation Plans

The Arab Energy Fund, a Middle East and North Africa-focused multilateral financial institution, said on December 4 that it intends to invest up to $1 billion over the next five years in decarbonisation technologies, Reuters reported.

The company has a five-year strategy till 2028 to achieve clean energy transition and net zero. The $1 billion investment is a part of this strategy. 

Arab Energy Fund CEO Khalid Ali Al-Ruwaigh said in a statement that the strategy involved diversifying investments by developing technological advancements for enhanced energy efficiencies and driving sustained decarbonisation efforts. 

COP28: IMF Head On Decarbonisation

The International Monetary Fund’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on December 4 that the organisation hopes to see the price on carbon increase to give the “biggest possible incentive for decarbonisation”, according to a Reuters report. She said that in order to speed up decarbonisation, the price on carbon needs to go up. 

COP28: Green Finance Pledge By UAE Banks

Abdul Aziz Al Ghurai, the chair of the United Arab Emirates’s banking federation, said on December 4 that banks in the UAE have pledged $1 trillion dirhams, or around $270 billion, in green finance, according to a Reuters report. 

COP28: Abu Dhabi’s Partnership With World Bank, HSBC, And Others

On December 4, Abu Dhabi partnered with nine founding members of the Global Climate Finance Centre, which is an independent think-tank and research hub, and aims to observe barriers to investment into low-carbon projects and develop the financial frameworks to overcome the obstacles. The founding members include the World Bank and HSBC. Abu Dhabi will host this think-tank. 

Dr Al Jaber said in a statement that the think-tank will put Abu Dhabi and the UAE at the forefront of driving global change in sustainable finance. 

COP28: UAE Energy Minister On Hydrocarbon Investment

On December 4, UAE energy minister Suhail al-Mazrouei said that to avoid a “high pricing environment” during the green transition, investments in hydrocarbons are important.

COP28: Copenhagen’s Aim To Raise Money For Fund Focused On Renewable Energy

Danish investment firm Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has launched a 14-year fund called the Growth Markets Fund II, which will focus on wind and solar energy, and investments in battery storage and projects turning electricity into carbon-neutral synthetic fuels. The firm aims to raise $3 billion for the fund to build renewable energy projects from scratch in emerging and middle-income countries, Reuters reported. 

COP28: Belgian Climate Protests

On December 3 (December 4 in India and December 3 in the UAE), about 20,000 people protested in the Belgian capital to demand more climate action, and said there is no Planet B, a Reuters report stated. 

COP28 Day 4: December 3

On the fourth day of COP28, leading development banks signed a joint statement to step up climate efforts, but did not say anything about stopping financing for fossil fuel projects; the UAE and several charities pledged $777 million in financing to eradicate climate change-induced tropical diseases, and global experts released a peer-reviewed scientific article that highlights 10 new insights in climate science, among other developments.

COP28: Pledge By Development Banks To Step Up Climate Efforts

Ten leading development banks, including the World Bank, have signed a joint statement to step up climate efforts, but have not mentioned anything about stopping financing for fossil fuel projects. The banks said in a statement that the window of opportunity to secure a liveable planet was “rapidly closing”, Reuters reported. 

People have called for changes in the manner in which banks are run in response to the climate crisis because extreme weather events have increased. 

In 2022, the banks contributed $61 billion to climate finance, but it is just a fraction of what is required to combat the climate crisis. 

COP28: Millions Pledged For Fight Against Tropical Diseases

The UAE and several charities pledged $777 million in financing to eradicate climate change-induced tropical diseases. This happened as delegates urged greater global efforts to protect people from climate change-induced health risks, media reports said. The diseases caused by nutritional deficiencies or environmental conditions encountered in areas lying between and alongside the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn belts are called tropical diseases. 

COP28 President Sultan Al-Jaber said in a statement that climate-related factors have become one of the greatest threats to human health in the 21st century. 

The UAE and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have pledged $100 million each. Belgium, Germany, and the US Agency for International Development have also announced funds for climate-related health issues. 

COP28: 10 New Climate Science Insights

Global experts have released a peer-reviewed scientific article that highlights 10 new insights in climate science. These insights are some of the most pressing findings in climate research. The article also provides guidance through 2024 and beyond on how to tackle the climate crisis. 

Decision makers in business and policy can use these scientific insights to make informed, effective and holistic decisions on climate solutions. 

The most important finding mentioned in the report is the fact that exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming is inevitable for at least some decades. This means that overshooting the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming target cannot be avoided due to insufficient mitigation of greenhouse gases. However, the magnitude and duration of the overshoot period can be minimised. This is important to reduce loss and damage, and the risk of irreversible changes. 

COP28: Former US Vice President Slams UAE

Former US Vice President Al Gore said on December 3 that the public’s trust is being abused because the CEO of one of the largest and least responsible oil companies in the world has been named as the head of the COP, Reuters reported. He was referring to Dr Al Jaber, the CEO of the UAE’s national oil company ADNOC, and COP28 President. 

Gore also unveiled data which showed that the UAE’s greenhouse gas emissions increased by 7.5 per cent from 2021 to 2022, while for the rest of the world, the increase was 1.5 per cent. 

COP28: Hillary Clinton Urges Reform Of Insurance Sector

On December 3, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged reforms of the insurance sector, stating that low-income countries most affected by climate change are struggling to access insurance to help protect them from economic shocks. 

Clinton cited the “almost unbearable conditions” Indian women are forced to work in because they have no economic alternatives. 

COP28: Indonesia Signs Deal To Close Coal-Fired Power Plant Early

On December 3, Indonesia and the Asian Development Bank signed a provisional deal with the owners of the Cirebon-1 coal-fired power station to close it seven years earlier than planned, news agency Reuters reported. 

The Asian Development Bank has launched an initiative called the Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM), and the deal to close the coal-fired power station is the first measure under the plan. The aim of ETM is to help countries reduce their climate-damaging carbon emissions. 

The plant is a 660 megawatt station, and a key supplier to Indonesia’s capital Jakarta. It will be closed in December 2035 instead of July 2042. 

COP28: Scientists Launch Research Coalition To Study Congo River Basin 

On December 3, hundreds of scientists launched a research coalition to conduct more studies on the Congo River basin and its rainforest, which is the second-largest rainforest in the world, after the Amazon rainforest, Reuters reported. 

The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network is backing up the Science Panel. The aim of the panel is to issue a report in 2025 that highlights the most detailed scientific assessment to date about the Congo Basin. 

Quoting Raphaël Tshimanga, co-chair of the panel, a Reuters report said that the Congo Basin is a unique ecosystem that supports hundreds of millions of people, and also plays a crucial role in the regulation of Earth’s climate, and that the current knowledge of the functioning of the Congo Basin is “very, very limited”. 

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is home to most of the forest. Last year, the country had the second highest rate of tree cover loss after Brazil, the Reuters report said, citing Global Forest Watch. 

Due to tree cover loss, greenhouse gas emissions have increased, driving global warming, and destroying plant and animal habitats. 

Tshimanga said that more than 300 scientists will contribute to the report on Congo Basin, which will include sections on how the Congo regulates the regional climate, human impacts on the first ecosystem, and how scientific data can be used to inform government policy. 

COP28: Pope Francis’s Call For World Religions To Unite Against Environmental Devastation

On December 3, Pope Francis urged all the world’s religions to unite in the battle against environmental devastation, and said that religions need to urgently act for the sake of the environment. 

COP28 Day 3: December 2

On December 2, the third day of COP28, the United States unveiled financial rules to cut the country’s oil and gas industry releases of methane, and pledged $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund, Brazil launched an effort to raise $205 million through 2024 to save the Amazon rainforest by 2030, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) announced an investment of $15 billion until 2030 in Latin America to combat climate change, 118 governments pledged to triple the world’s renewable energy capacity by 2030, and philanthropies pledged to invest $450 million over the next three years to help countries tackle methane. 

Since the third day was agriculture day, the focus was on global food systems.